A Stranger's Promise
by funkwolf
Summary: A strange man witnesses the sacrifice Minato and Kushina make to protect their child Naruto and vows to protect and guide the child in honour of their sacrifice. However there is more to the man than meets the eye and Naruto's life is changed beyond compare when the stranger returns one day announcing that he is Naruto's foster father.
1. Chapter 1

The wind drifted amongst the leaves, the only noise to be heard amongst the night. A hooded man in a brown cloak walks in the overgrown forest; continuing along like a moving painting. He stops at a branch sitting next to a tree, sitting down on it with a sigh.

Light sears across the night sky and a great force rips the trees out of the earth, being smashed against each other, they fall in a horrendous fashion. Destroying the earth and firing splinters. The cloaked man seemingly sits calm and still in the center of all of this, but he grips his knee tightly, unsure of what to make of this destruction. He turns slightly towards the light and an aftershock speeds across the forest wreckage, bringing a firestorm with it. The cloaked man is now back on his feet and runs at a great speed, swiftly jumping around and rolling under any wreckage as he makes his way towards higher ground.

The forest is now a torturous scene of fire and heat, chocking the smoke choked, strangling the man's lungs with smoke. He presses on until a tree falls in front of him, trapping him within a cage of fire. He takes off his cloak and wraps it around one of his hands, then he jumps at the fallen burning log and uses his shielded hand to propel himself over. The cloak around the man's hand catches fire in the process and the man rips it off; the hand is now burnt severely on it's palm. The now uncloaked man finally makes his way up a great hill which does not support any trees or fire.

"I cannot die, not while I still have things to protect... precious things" Minato says this as he turns around to face the chained Kyubi. "Sealing Technique: Dead Demon Consuming Seal!" As Minato utters these words a demonic figure appears behind him and begins enchanting. After stopping, the demon god of death casts his arm into Minato's body and rips out his soul. Minato grunts and bears his teeth with a face of pain as this is happening. The demon god then sets his gaze upon the Kyubi, which snarls back in return before the demon god sends out his arm, through Minato, into the large nine-tails fox and drags the Kyubi's soul into Minato's body. The Kyubei shrinks in size until it is half of it's original height and the weight of the chains forces the, still unnaturally large, nine-tails fox into a immobilized position. Minato turns around and now smiles at his wife Kushina, who had been holding their child silently all of this time. "Minato..." Kushina whispers as she puts the baby boy down on a ritual altar and turns away to start coughing. "Kushina!" Cries Minato as he drops on one knee near her weak body in hopes of offering her comfort. The chains start to slip off the Kyubi's smaller frame and the creature of hatred sees his chance. "Fourth Hokage!" Bellows the Kyubi as he stretches out one claw to kill Minato's son. Minato and Kushina both react quickly and block off any danger to their son, sacrificing themselves body and soul.

But the claw never impales them, instead it has been stopped by another man who has been impaled in his right shoulder by the Kyubi. "You damned fool!" The mysterious man smiles as he grasps hold of the Kyubi's claw holding it in place. "Every creature of any intelligence, whether pure or malevolent, should give parents a chance to say goodbye to their child." The man retorts to the Kyubi's curse and gains an almighty roar in return. "You... this was our sacrifice to make." Says Minato as he faces the back of the mysterious man, studying the burns across his body, smelling the smoldering wounds. "Now who said I was going to die from this." The burned figure spits out blood before continuing again. "You should be with your child, I don't know of the circumstances surrounding this incident. But I understand the situation. Go say goodbye to your son, don't waste this final opportunity." Minato turns with his wife, both very tired, but they smile for their son. "Kushina, what do you want to say to Naruto?" Minato says as he puts his arm around her and draws her close. "Naruto, grow up strong and eat well. Eat plenty of vegetables, don't trust Jiraya Sensei and become a fine young man." She says this and faces Minato. "Is there anything you want to say to Naruto?" She asks.

"Your mother has already said most of the things I want to say Naruto. So I just want to add that you should never give up. Your life is the precious thing that we give ours to protect." After saying this to the baby Naruto, Minato puts one hand against Kushina's back and forces the other into a seal sign. His hand glows for a second before returning to normal. The demon god finally moves again as he takes out a knife and grins. "Minato, I'm getting cold." Whispers Kushina.

"We don't have much longer." says Minato with a sigh. "I love you Kushina." Minato turns and embraces his wife. "I love you Minato." She whispers into his ear as the leaves drift across the hilltop.

The chains fall and fade into non-existence. The nine-tails is gone. The last man standing turns to face the husband and wife who have sunken onto their knees. 'Even when they die they still keep their ground, what amazing people' thought the man as he walks towards them. His torn clothes show off the burn marks and a large gaping hole in his shoulder, but the wounds heal rapidly and the blood drips off of his body. He stands still for a moment and puts his hands in prayer and speaks out "I don't know if you can hear me, but I promise to protect your son and allow him to become the man you both wanted him to be."

Another man appears with a black staff and a dark ninja-like outfit. "Who are you?" The newcomer asks. "Daremo. Might I ask for your own name, stranger?" the man called Daremo says this as he turns around and finally shows his clean cut, brown eyed, mid-thirties face. "I am the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi." he says to Daremo and Daremo chuckles in return. "Well I don't know what Hokage means." He says turning back to look at the baby. "But this child is precious. They called him Naruto, so that will be the name he goes by when I take care of him." Hiruzen darts in front of Daremo and points his black staff at Daremo's throat. "I cannot allow a stranger to look after Minato's son." "Be that as it may I know nothing about this world, so you'll have to look after him anyway. For the first few years at least. I will return once I know everything there is to know about this strange land." Daremo finishes his statement and picks up Naruto in order to hand him over to Hiruzen. "Look after him, the brave sacrifice of the parents must be honoured and I will one day return to do my fair share." Daremo concludes as he walks away, back down the hill in the dead of the night. Naruto remains silent in Hiruzen's arms and the older man smiles at the innocence of the young blonde boy with the demon fox inside of him.


	2. Chapter 2 Hey Kid

Naruto A Stranger's Promise: Chapter 2 Hey kid

Daremo walked along the familiar forest again. However, this time it wasn't on fire so he smiled happily. It had been quite some journey for him, across the entire continent and many of the countries. But the seven year journey paid off, he was now no longer a stranger in a strange land. He could understand all sorts of things that he hadn't known before, such as ninjas and tailed beasts... especially the tailed beasts. He wanted to learn as much as he could about them in order to help out the Naruto child that he'd promised to look after. The boy should be a little brat of seven by now. Daremo glowed at the thought, 'kids certainly do grow up fast' he thought to himself.

"Passport?"

"I don't have one, but I have a meeting with the hokage." Daremo replied to the guard's question.

"Uhuh and when did you arranged the meeting?" The guard looked at Daremo's face when he asked that question. "I arranged it around seven years ago, but it was rather unofficial." Daremo told the guard happily.

"I see... well that was before my time, so er, yeah, we'll get you an armed escort and take you to the hokage. But the escort are trained ninjas, so don't even think that you'll be able to pull anything." The guard warned him and signalled another guard, after five minutes wait a group of three ANBU agents hit the floor and surrounded Daremo. "Ah, this should do nicely. Thank you for your time, goodbye now." Daremo left after saying this to the guard and the ANBU agents followed.

* * *

Hiruzen blow out smoke and sighed deeply, it had been seven years and like promised, the man who called himself Daremo had come back. He looked a lot more cheerful this time around, but then again, this time around the circumstances were a lot calmer. "Let's get to it." Daremo finally said to the third Hokage. "I'm here to become Naruto's foster father." Upon hearing this, Hiruzen decided to take this into stride.

"Seven years." He began. "I have spent seven years making sure Naruto never learnt about his parents in order to protect him and now some ghost from the past expects me to just hand over the boy without a fuss." After finishing his short story he looks long and hard at Daremo to watch his reaction. "Yeah, that's pretty much the short version of the story... so when do I get to meet the kid?" Daremo asked, much to Hiruzen's dismay. There was nothing wrong with the answer, but he was worried about the trouble that this stranger might bring. "You can meet him immediately, at this time he'll be around the village somewhere. Go find him and don't cause any trouble." After Hiruzen said this, Daremo thanked him and left.

"Lord Third." A bearded man, that had stood in the corner of the room, began but was stopped by Hiruzen. "Don't Asuma, I know it's risky letting some stranger we don't even know about look after the nine-tails child. But he helped Minato and Kushina after the Kyubi attacked and Naruto needs a father to see as his pillar of strength. With luck they might be perfect for each other."

* * *

A group of villagers crowded around a crying boy. "Monster. Scum. Go die you filthy little child." These words echoed around the child's ears, but what hurt most was the cold stares. Nobody wanted him, everybody thought him better off dead. 'Why does everybody hate me' Naruto asked himself. "HEY! Leave that kid alone!" A voice rang out and the villagers scattered like children that had just been caught doing something they were told not to do five minutes ago. But some of them stayed behind. "What's it to YOU what we're doing here?" A thin looking villager with a single chin hair said to the man that had just called out. Naruto stopped crying, but couldn't clearly see the man through the tears left in his eyes. But he did see the man raise his foot up high, before stomping it back down causing the whole ground to shake. The villagers fell over and as the man walked towards them they ran away to join the others. Naruto watched this strange man as he walked towards him. "No, get away from me!" The blonde boy cried out. He turned to the villagers and shouted to them "Help! Help me!" But they turned their faces away from him. Naruto tried to run away but he fell over, so he shook violently until the man reached him. Naruto closed his eyes in fear, but felt a hand softly placed against his head. He opened his eyes and saw the smiling face of the man. "Hello Naruto, my name's Daremo. I'm going to be taking care of you from now on." He told Naruto and Naruto, not sure what to make of this, just nodded.

* * *

After entering a ramen stand, whereupon Daremo helped Naruto up onto a stool, Daremo ordered two ramen for them both and watched as Naruto helped himself to seconds and then thirds and finally cut in to stop him from the fourth. "Hey, my wallet's going to go bust and your belly's going to burst. If your still hungry we can get some later." After saying this to Naruto, Daremo paid for the bill and stood up to leave. "Are you coming kid?" He asked Naruto. Naruto scrunched his eyes up tight as he leered at Daremo. "My name's Naruto." He said to Daremo in a rather bratty tone.

"I know Naruto. But your still a kid to me." He said to Naruto before adding with a gleam in his eyes. "If you want to me to call you Naruto then earn my respect, kid." Naruto jumped down from his stool and scrunched his fist.

"I will! I'll become Hokage!" Naruto declared not just to Daremo, but to anybody who could hear him.

"Oh, so you plan to surpass everyone do you?" Daremo asked before adding. "Well then, kid. I guess I'll call you Naruto if you ever reach that position." Daremo said this while smiling. 'Minato, Kushina. You're child seeks to surpass even the two of you. He'll be a fine man just like you both wanted.' Daremo thought this to himself and stretched out a hand for Naruto to grab a hold of. Naruto studied it and slowly held it looking up at Daremo and smiling. Daremo beamed and said to Naruto "I promise, now that I'm here I won't let anything bad like what happened earlier. Not while I'm around." Naruto gave him a grin and they both walked away from the Ramen stand, leaving an empty fourth bowl behind.

* * *

The next day Naruto was picked up out of his bed and was being used as a mop to clean his own apartment. "Hey, what are you doing!" He yelled as he spat out his mouldy T-shirt.

"This place is a mess, you won't get friends coming round if you don't clean up." Daremo said to him sternly but with an added hint cheerfulness to his nature. " I don't have friends anyway." Naruto replied almost mournfully.

"Maybe not now, but when you become a ninja you'll be forced to work with people and there's no time for hatred as a ninja, not if you want to stay alive, you put your life on the line for your country and well, if I'm brutally honest, that's a good way of bringing people together." Daremo said all of this to a bleary eyed Naruto. So he just set him down, handed the kid a mop and barked out "clean" making Naruto clean, sourly. "When you're done we'll start training." He added and Naruto spun to face him.

"Training?" Naruto said with mixed feeling. Daremo bent down to Naruto's level and said "I've got to get you prepared for the academy, most of the people in there will be from their retrospective clans and I can't let them see you as a weakling, so from now on I'll get you ready with training. It will be gruelling, it will be hellish and it will make you ready for Ninja Academy."


	3. Chapter 3 Hardships

Naruto A Stranger's Promise: Chapter 3 Hardships

Naruto laid on the floor breathing inhaling and exhaling in rapid succession, his arms were covered in cuts and bruises and his legs twitched shooting pain throughout his entire body. Speaking and thinking were the last things on his mind right now. Daremo knelt beside him, watching him to make sure that he didn't have a fit. "This was pretty good for a first day, but you better be ready because the third day's the hardest. It'll all get easier after that as your muscles begin to develop, but on that third day you won't know what's hit you. I hope you're strong enough to deal with the pain, kid." Daremo emphasising the word 'kid' to Naruto taunted him into standing up.

"I... am not... c-called... KID!" He yelled with a struggle. Daremo smiled at Naruto, clearly impressed by his fortitude. "Oh, so you managed to get up after all. I guess you just might make it through the third day."

* * *

Third day. The Third day was defiantly the worst, the training was the same. But the fatigue from the last two days had combined to create a nasty cold for Naruto. But Daremo had dragged him out of bed all the same and back into the training area he had set up. One hundred tree punches made his fists bleed like a sow, one hundred sit-ups turned his back into jelly, one hundred push-ups turned his arms into dust and that was just the warm-up. Five miles up a steep hill and back, tree jumps, log pulling, water carrying, balancing weights laid on his feet and worst of all was the final exercise to finish it. Pushing a boulder, that was Naruto's size, up the largest hill that could be found in the area. A normal child of seven had no possible way of doing all of this, but Daremo knew that as an Uzumaki and the nine-tails Jinchuriki, Naruto was no normal child. He could take it, it was just a matter of him being prepared to take it. After Naruto had finally finished rolling the stone up the hill. He nearly fell back down, but Daremo caught him and made sure that he did his cool down exercises before he collapsed. Naruto wheezed whilst he was sleeping, so Daremo come over and knelt beside him again. This time Daremo put his hand on Naruto's chest and he started breathing normally again afterwards. 'I know that I'm going easy on him by getting rid of his cold, but we're in no hurry. So I don't need to force him through that kind of hell.' Daremo picked up Naruto and carried him into the village.

* * *

The shopkeepers did not like Daremo at all, he was a stranger and he was constantly with the nine-tails brat. But he had a nasty glare that could burn straight through them and so if he ever came into their shop they could only raise the prices. But he always seemed to be able to easily pay and without fuss. It was like there was no beating him. After buying his seventh pot of ramen and some vegetables for him to sneak into the mix. Daremo left for Naruto's apartment only to find that he was not there any longer. He dropped his shopping and rushed out to begin searching for him.

* * *

A group of children pushed a small girl and all shouted at once creating a intangible blur of noise. The girl stood rooted frightened for her life. "Your just a spoilt clan member!" A large fat one yelled, "why are you so scared. Shouldn't you beat us up you pathetic hyuga!" They continued pushing and shoving until one of them kicked her down on the floor making her scream. "Hey!" Naruto yelled, "get away from her."

They turned to look at Naruto and laughed. "You look like you've gotten beaten up already." A skinny one cried out. "Hey it's that blonde kid, my dad says he's nothing but scum." The third and final bully said, too bland to even describe. "Then we'll just have to beat him up!" One of them yelled and they moved towards Naruto instead. But a figure fell down with his feet on top of two of them and pulled the third one down into the dirt with one hand.

"The dirt seems good enough for you three." A familiar voice said. Naruto eyes widened in astonishment, it was Daremo and he had the group of bullies pinned down with their faces in the mud. "Now I could lecture you all day, but I'd get nowhere. So I'm going to tell your parents and they will lecture you three for me. Otherwise they'll answer to me." Daremo said. He finally got off of them and lined them up to march off back to their homes. But a man made his way over to Daremo and Naruto before they could leave. "What on earth have you done to lady Hinata!" He cried. Daremo just looked at Naruto and asked him to tell the newcomer what had been going on and after much arguing the Hyuga left with the small girl and eventually the parents of the bullies were contacted, much to the dismay of the group. Who were all pulled in harshly by their retrospective mothers. It was indeed a very tiring day. But Daremo was proud of Naruto and decided that he could take the next day off. But still scolded him for going out on his own, when he was in such a state.

* * *

Daremo had planned to take Naruto for a walk to the Hokage faces to teach him about the men that he intended to surpass. But Naruto had instead fallen asleep on his lap when Daremo was reading The Ninja Academy pamphlet. So he just sat in silence with a sleeping Naruto.

After a little time passed, Hiruzen made his way into the apartment. "Hiruzen, you are a godsend." Daremo whispered "I was just about to die from boredom." Hiruzen sat down at the table facing the two of them and smiled gently. "I was so unsure of what to do about having you foster Naruto. But I'm glad you pressured me into it, I've never seen Naruto look happier." Hiruzen said. Daremo smiled back, not wanting to chuckle for fear of waking 'the kid' up. "Hiruzen, I need to ask you something." Daremo said. Hiruzen paused to think about what Daremo could possibly be asking for now. "Yes, what is it?" He finally said.

"I request that in three months time, I will be able to take Naruto to the village hidden in waterfalls." This reply from Daremo was not what Hiruzen was expecting at all. But it sounded even better. "Might I request to ask as to why?" Hiruzen questioned and Daremo's reply was immediate. "I want Naruto to be able to meet another Jinchuriki. It's too risky taking him to the eighth, most of the others are adults and don't have anything to gain from meeting Naruto and the first is too volatile. Although I do want him to meet the first one day, I just think that now would result in a fight. However the seventh Jinchuriki in the villages hidden in waterfalls is about his age and has gone through the same pains as Naruto, without being broken by those hardships." Daremo thought about this whilst staring up for what seemed like guidance. "You have been busy these last seven years haven't you? You know more then me now and in such a short amount of time." Hiruzen nodded before continuing "You have my permission, but I want you to bring Naruto back safely. Travelling is a dangerous business." Daremo smiled with a glow.

"You have my word, Hiruzen, that nothing will happen to Naruto and he will meet up with the seven-tails child without harm."


	4. Chapter 4 First Encounter

Naruto A Stranger's Promise: Chapter 4 First Encounter

In the month that followed the start of Naruto's arduous training, the results started showing. It wasn't noticeable to anybody who didn't look closely, but Naruto had grown much stronger and had done so very quickly. His skin had grown tougher and whilst his muscles had yet to develop to show his full strength. Naruto's heart, lungs and diaphragm were stronger. Allowing him to have even more endurance and speed than before. Daremo believed Naruto to be ready for a trip to the foreign country. So he gave Naruto the day off in order to let him rest and to tell him about the trip. "Hey kid." Daremo said to him. Naruto looked up from his second bowl of ramen with a mouthful of noodles hanging out. "We're going to be leaving the village for a short while, I don't know how long it'll be. But I can't imagine that it won't be any longer than a month." Naruto nodded at Daremo, causing the noodles in his mouth to hit the counter of the ramen stand. "This is fine with you is it, Naruto?" Daremo asked and Naruto nodded again. "Good, because you never had a choice in the first place." He said laughing at Naruto, who's eyes had bulged at the thought of himself being dragged out of the village against his will and he knew that Daremo would do it if he had to.

* * *

"Alright you ready Naruto?" He asked the blonde boy and the boy smiled, yelling out in conformation. "Then let's go!" The citizens watched the two outcasts as they made their way out of the village with heavy rucksacks, that dwarfed their own bodies, on their backs. "Look at the size of those rucksacks, they must be planning to not come back for years." They whispered to each other. "Good riddance, I hope they don't come back for that long."

A mile later they were out of sight of the village. "Alright, they won't be able to see us anymore." Daremo said after stopping.

"Argh, my arms and back were getting tired." Naruto replied and they let go of their rucksacks, opened them and tipped them over causing a wave of large weights to pour out. They then tightened their rucksacks around what was only a month's rations each. The stopped to look at the weights and then began laughing. "How will they react when they find out that we were only planning to go for a month?" Naruto asked.  
"Just have to wait and find out, but it will be worth the wait." Daremo said and they both started laughing again.

* * *

A week later the terrain became a lot more difficult to travel in. There were still trees, but not as many and instead they had been replaced by cliffs. Which seemed to almost sprout up all over the place almost as if they were trees. Eventually they came to a cliff that they had to climb down. "Okay, you'll go first, that way after I tie a rope to us both. I'll be there to support you if you fall." Daremo said. Naruto looked at him with a stunned expression.

"But what if you fall instead of me!" He yelled. Daremo folded his arms and thought for a moment, then he said to Naruto "You'll just have to try and catch me before I hit the ground." Naruto angrily tried to explain why that wouldn't work and Daremo took the opportunity to tie a rope, that he had taken from his backpack, to them both. "Okay, I'll see you at the bottom." He said and Naruto stopped shouting to slant his head in confusion. Daremo smiled for a second and silence filled the air, then he kicked Naruto off of the large cliff and he sped a good way down before stopping when the rope twanged. "Maybe, I should have used less rope." Daremo said to himself. Then he started he quickly climb down himself.

* * *

After reaching the bottom they took a breather. Then Daremo heard a stick crack. "Stay here and keep quiet." He said all of a sudden. Then he disappeared into the forest at the bottom of the hill.

Daremo kept very quiet as he moved. His enemy already has an advantage and he didn't want to hand over another one. This battle was a matter of who lost their patience first. But as Daremo was protecting Naruto, he couldn't afford to be patient. So he closed his eyes and projected himself into the trees. Feeling the vibrations from the tree he entered, he felt that his body was staying still without it's conscious mind. He then searched the forest projecting himself from tree to tree until he felt a click. A ninja had just jumped down on the tree closest to his body. He projected himself back into his own body, opened his eyes and in a blur of speed he appeared behind the mystery ninja and grabbed him by his head. But he disappeared in a puff of smoke and Daremo was forced to start searching again. This time he controlled the wind and felt the air part around a breathing figure hiding behind a tree. 'That must be him' Daremo thought, 'there can be no mistakes this time.' He threw his consciousness into the tree that the ninja was standing on and took total control over it. Then he grew out an extra branch at alarming speed and it impaled the ninja through his heart. After returning to his own body, the tree died from being denatured so rapidly and creaked as the wood softened and snapped. But something seemed wrong, Naruto had been too quiet and obedient. Realizing that he had made a second mistake and had only counted one ninja instead of two, or maybe even more, he rushed back, faster than the wind.

* * *

Naruto had been picking his nose when the second rogue ninja started attacking him. At first he threw his shuriken, but the training that Daremo had put him through had more than prepared Naruto and he sidestepped his own death. Then the ninja shot down from the trees with a small dagger with spiked ridges on one side. But Naruto was the faster thinker and he picked up a rock and threw it, hitting his attacker on the head, killing him. Daremo appeared two seconds later and was surprised by the outcome. 'Wow, it's not often that you see a seven old, without any weapons, manage to defeat a fully grown ninja and true to his word, Naruto had stayed in the same spot without any fuss.' Naruto poked at the body lying on the ground and said "he won't get up."

"No, I imagine that he won't ever be getting up again." Daremo said, calmly. Naruto gave him a puzzled look. "Why's that?" He asked. Daremo wasn't sure how to explain death to a kid that wasn't even his, so he decided to try and take Naruto's mind off of it. "Come on let's go, we've only got this last forest to pass through, then a cave, and then we'll be at our destination." Naruto, pleased with this answer, entered the forest. But Daremo stayed behind and picked up the knife that the ninja had been using, then he took it with him and joined Naruto.

* * *

Passing through the last time behind a great waterfall, Naruto started to interrogate Daremo. "Why are we coming here, anyway?" Daremo smiled, noting that Naruto had finally figured out that he didn't know where he was going all of this time. "There's someone I want you to meet at this ninja village." He told Naruto.

"Who?" He asked. "Is he a friend of yours?"

"No, I've never met this person before and this person is a she by the way Naruto." Naruto ran in front of Daremo and gave him a puzzled look. "Huh, why do you want me to meet some girl?" He asked. They braced they're eyes as they stepped out of the cave and into the light. Daremo put his hand on Naruto's back and said "she's a lot like you though, I know that much, and I think that you'll be good friends." Naruto gave him a questioning stare. "What makes you so sure?" He asked. Daremo laughed and pointed to the village. "This is our final stop, so why don't we go over and find out why I'm so sure." Naruto jumped upon hearing this and ran towards the village hidden by a waterfall.


	5. Chapter 5 Reach for the sky

Naruto A Stranger's Promise: Chapter 5 Reach for the sky

The Takigakure guard watched the two strangers as they entered the village. A young boy of seven and an adult in his prime made no cause for alarm and their story was believable enough. A man and his foster child travelling on holiday, this is nothing out of the ordinary. But they said that they were from the leaf village. That makes for one hell of a journey if you're only planning on a simple holiday. So the guard eyed them and making sure to remember their faces.

"Hey, Daremo!" Naruto exclaimed when they got into the village center. Daremo looked down at the kid. "What's wrong?" He asked, Naruto breathed in deep before shouting "What the hell do we do now!?" This outburst disturbed some villages. So Daremo knocked Naruto over the head to feign a sense of 'parent education'. "We are doing nothing, Naruto, just sitting and waiting for something interesting to happen." Daremo told Naruto who laid his head on his hands glumly.

Dusk finally drew to a close before Daremo spotted what he was waiting for. A mint haired girl with a darker tone of skin and golden orange eyes appeared. She looked to be Naruto's age and just as Daremo had predicted, she was running away from a group of children. "Insect!" They cried out "We'll squash you like a pathetic bug!" "Don't do that you might get ooze on your boots! Just throw her over the waterfall!" They all cackled, sounding more like rabid dogs and filthy birds than humans. Daremo leaned back into a more relaxed position, he knew what would happen next, so instead of interfering he decided to watch Naruto work his magic instead.

"What do you think you're doing!?" A blonde haired boy yelled. Fu looked up to see that the boy had positioned himself between her and the others. "Hey look, that kid has blonde hair!" One of the brats cried out. "He must be some idiot that wants to protect the insect! Show him what happens to idiots who want to be heroes!" After this was said, the whole gang moved towards Naruto.

'Oh.' Daremo thought after remembering something. 'I haven't taught him hand to hand combat yet. I better help him out a little' Daremo closed his eyes and casted himself into the ground and no sooner then he did that, a boy made a swing for Naruto. Daremo forced the ground to pulsate beneath the attacker's feet and he was knocked off balance, allowing Naruto to hit him first. With all of his strength behind one fist, Naruto knocked his assailant back into the other brats; knocking them all over. Naruto smiled triumphantly, as the kids fled without another word. The one who was hit was crying. Naruto turned to see the mint haired girl and then put his hands behind his back. "I'm Naruto and I'm going to be Hokage someday!" He exclaimed and the proud boast reached the whole village, who had stopped to watch the blonde boy talking to their jinchuriki. Naruto then knelt down and put his hand out. "Do you want to be friends?" The mint haired girl got up and ran off, leaving behind a bewildered Naruto.

"Hey, why did she run away?" Naruto asked Daremo as they walked through the village. "I could ask that same question to you, kid. Why did YOU try to run away from me when we first met?" Naruto thought about this question that Daremo posed him. Seeing that an answer wasn't coming any time soon, Daremo answered the question for him. "It's because you were scared of getting hurt again, Naruto. You were scared that I wouldn't be able to understand you. That girl is only doing what's natural for a child that's been hurt as much as you were being hurt. It's just a shame that things like that happen." Naruto thought about this for some time before asking "why are we being hurt like this Daremo?" Daremo smiled, "that's an answer that you must figure out on your own Naruto, learning to understand people is hard, but by doing so it makes a better person." Naruto nodded, not really taking it all in, but nodding all the same.

They finally stopped and turned to a house on the outskirts of the village. Daremo knocked on the door of the house and after a little while it slowly opened and a golden orange eye peeked out. She first saw Daremo and stared at him, waiting for him to do something, but he just calmly stood there, so the next person she saw was Naruto when he shouted out, "hey! It's you!" Upon hearing this the door slammed closed. "Huh? Does she not like me?" Naruto asked. Daremo gave a sad smile before answering. "It's not a matter of like and dislike, it's a matter of trust and that's something you have to earn." Naruto sighed knowing that he wouldn't like what was going to happen next. "And how do you think I should earn that?" He asked. The fire lit back into Daremo's eyes, "do you remember that waterfall we passed through?" Naruto nodded at this. "Well this time I want you to climb up it from bottom to top." Daremo said. A pause emerged until the silence was broken by Naruto "What~!?"

Daremo had closed off his mind to Naruto's complaints after hearing the door behind him click open slightly. 'Perfect, I knew this would work.' Daremo thought and then said to Naruto "Now I never said that it was going to be easy. But I wouldn't make you do it unless I knew that you could." Naruto silenced himself in mid-sentence. He thought about the mint-haired girl and then nodded.

The water thundered as it hit the bottom, any other noise that was made would not be heard. Naruto looked up for Daremo at the top. But he was too far away to be seen. So he breathed in deep and exhaled then he breathed in again and put his hands into the waterfall. The strength of the waterfall nearly pulled Naruto's arms, and Naruto with them, under the water. But he pushed up and put his hands onto the rock, the cold spiked into his hands like a polar bear's teeth. But Naruto couldn't give up, not this early. So he forced his whole body into the waterfall and felt the cold ride down his back like death itself. He forced his body to move before it went numb and began climbing.

Bit by bit, the cold wrapped itself around Naruto with cruel intent and the force of the waterfall screamed for him to let go. But he knew that he couldn't give up, so he began digging his hands deeper into the face of the rock wall as he climbed up. Causing cuts and tears to plague his hands, knees and feet.

Daremo looked down and watched the blonde boy as he climbed up. 'Adda boy, kid. You'll make a fine shinobi yet.' He thought to himself. He heard a rustle and saw the mint haired girl sit down a decent length away from him. "Don't worry." Daremo said, "he'll make it up here." The girl looked at Daremo, but then went back to focusing on the waterfall.

Naruto had made it half way up the waterfall and didn't even notice, it didn't even look like the waterfall had an end to him anymore. Blood dripped from his limbs and ran with the waterfall. But he had to get to the top. He just had to, so he kept on climbing. Ignoring the ringing in his ears, he kept on climbing. The pain was too much to bare and his body felt like it was truly going to break for the first time in his life. But Naruto knew that he had to get to the top, even if he gave up now he'd only fall to his death. The thought of something, that he didn't even understand, claiming him made Naruto scared and that fear instilled a new determination and Naruto lifted his arms up further and forced his body onwards, even as it got harder the more he climbed.

The girl waiting at the top of the waterfall with Daremo. She could finally see the blonde of Naruto's hair as he made his way up the waterfall. She keenly kept her eyes on him, watching his every move for the last four hours. Naruto didn't look up and instead put all of his strength and concentration into climbing, but as he reached for a rock it gave way and Naruto slid down. "No!" The girl screamed and immediately Naruto feared for his life, but a will of fire brightly burned inside of Naruto and he plunged his hands and feet into the wall then he bit into the rock and finally managed to stop himself from sliding.

Daremo looked up at the night stars and started singing.

"The red fire hums, to the man.

He will sing to the moon.

Sing on fire child, burning fire, so young, so bright.

The light it calms me, the moon will sing."

Hearing these words comforted Naruto in some way and relieved the pain in his body, so he grinned and kept on climbing.

"Oh fire, so young, call out to me.

The earth, it roars. The sea, it glows.

The earth, roars to the deep, to the deep it roars."

Fu watches Naruto claw his way to the top now standing up in anticipation almost trying to will Naruto forward herself.

"The earth now sings to the moon, the sea will sing out too.

Sing out moon.

The moon will sing, the red fire hums."

Dawn closed in and light on the village, people gathered at the top of the waterfall and watched the blonde boy climb to the top.

"People come, sing out now, sing to the moon.

Sing out, sing deep.

Oh fire so young, your country, sings out.

The earth, does roar. The sea does sing.

For the man, sings to the moon."

Naruto's hand grabbed hold of the tip of the cliff and heaved himself over. The villagers that had gathered cheered with delight. Naruto puffed and panted and just laid on the floor, completely out of it. The mint haired girl appeared over Naruto and stuck out her hand to him. "My name is Fu." She said. Naruto shook her hand, but it was covered in cuts and bruises and pain instantly shot through Naruto's entire body causing him to yelp out loud. Fu looked worried then she just smiled and started laughing out cheerfully.

Omake:

"Your song was rubbish, it didn't even rhyme." Naruto said to Daremo as he lay in a bed that Fu had kindly let him borrow for the day. 'This is just like him.' Daremo thought 'after all that he still won't shut up.' Daremo smiled "I agree, it was a bad song. But it felt right for the moment." Naruto heaved out a sigh and pain shot through him again. They both smiled and Fu started laughing "It was fitting, but it was still a pretty bad song."


	6. Chapter 6 Return to leaf village

Naruto A Stranger's Promise: Chapter 6 Return to leaf village

Daremo stood before an old man with brown hair that looked like it had been dipped in grey and white paint. But his hair was, oddly enough, naturally coloured that way from old age. The old man inspected the jagged dagger that Daremo had given him. He then sighed wearily, before giving Daremo his answer. "This blade is used by a small faction that split off from our village. I understand that you have already met our Jinchuriki, so I have no choice but to tell you." Daremo bowed his head and waited for the old man's explanation. "Not too long ago, a faction of our village was formed and after a lot of arguing, they split of from our own village. The leader of the small faction believed that we should try and develop our Jinchuriki into a weapon, but left after I denied him." Daremo listened to the story before adding his own thoughts into the mix. "That's a good story and all." He began, "but what does this have to do with them attacking me and the kid before we even got here?" This question lead to the old man scratching his head before finally answering. "It's most likely that you were close to their hideout, it's the only explanation that I can think of right now."

"Very well, do you know of another route that can get us safely back to the leaf village then?" Daremo asked. The old man thought deeply again before getting out a map and after a long detailed explanation, through which Daremo was mostly silent, another route was revealed. "Thank you for helping me, however, I will be taking Fu with me before I leave." The old man started to get angry.

"You'll do no such thing, as the village leader, I won't allow it." He barked this at Daremo and within an instant the ground started to shake and wind blasted from around Daremo. "I can and I will, it is no longer safer for her here, besides, I very much doubt that even your most loyal ninja will want to protect her." He said this quietly, but it seemed to echo in the old man's head. "Fine!" He yelled. "Do what you want, just leave this village immediately." Daremo nodded.

"Done." He said and left without another word.

* * *

Daremo had left the village with Naruto and Fu immediately, just like he promised, and they were almost back to the country of fire. Naruto was still in rough condition, due to his life threatening climb up the waterfall, so Daremo carried him and his back and this left Fu to walk besides them. She seemed to not know what to make of herself at first, venturing with strangers into unknown territory. However, Naruto's constant talking about leaf village, had cheered her up considerably and eventually the two were cheerfully talking and in some cases shouting at each other. Much to the dismay of Daremo, who wanted nothing more then to give his ears a rest. But he sensed a number of hidden chakra suddenly appear around him and gritted his teeth in frustration. "Naruto, Fu. Be quiet. We're no longer alone."

As he said this, five ninja surrounded the trio and readied their weapons. "Fu, hold onto Naruto for me." Daremo said and Fu nodded silently. Naruto wanted to shout out, but he knew better than to provoke anything, so he remained silent as he leaned against Fu. Daremo looked at his opponents and studied them silently. Two twin brothers with matching jagged daggers, a large man with a jagged club, a man with two swords and finally an unarmed man. "Give us, our insect demon." The unarmed man said, but Daremo ignored him and casted his mind out to the five men and inhaled deeply and said "Mind Rebellion." He then turned and grabbed hold of Fu and Naruto and whispered "close your eyes."

Behind them, the unarmed man started laughing until the club of the large man caved his head in. One of the twins started shouting, but his brother pounced on top of him and started hacking away in a mad lust for blood. Then he turned around and dashed towards the large man, who was charging the lone brother, but the two-styled swordsman cut off both of their heads in one clean spin. Blood painted him, but he didn't react. Instead, he threw away one sword and impaled his own head with the other one. When silence told Daremo of the group's demise, he picked up the two children and left.

* * *

"What did you do?" Naruto asked Daremo after they had travelled deep in the country of fire. "I killed them, kid. There were ways around it, but I had to protect you and Fu. So I chose what I deemed to be the safer option." Daremo answered his question, but more filled his mind. So he choose the one that he felt was most important. "How did you kill them?" He asked. Daremo stopped and looked over his shoulder at Naruto, before looking to his side and saw that Fu was also waiting for an answer. "One day, I will tell you two of my abilities, however, I cannot tell either of you today. It's not a very pleasant story, so I need the pair of you to wait until you are older." Daremo said this and continued walking without another word.

The very next day the leaf village was in sight. "Is this it!? Is this the leaf village!?" Fu shouted at Naruto, who now seemed to be fully healed, Naruto nodded back at Fu with a grin. "This is it! The greatest ninja village in the world!" He exclaimed happily. Fu and Naruto ran towards the village, with Daremo following behind.

* * *

Hiruzen looked at his friend's face as he smiled cheerily. Judging from the story that just came from Daremo, the man should have no right to smile. This fool should have returned to Konoha as soon as he was first attacked, but this damn fool continued on to the waterfall village, made Naruto climb up the waterfall and then took an extra risk by transporting the Jinchuriki of waterfall village back to Konoha village, which of course resulted in him getting ambushed. But here he was, smiling like there was no problem at all, there was no helping his strange friend at all. He looked again at Daremo and they both exploded in laughter. "One of these days you're going to land somebody into trouble." Hiruzen told Daremo through his laughter. "Won't be anything that this somebody won't be able to get out of." Daremo said and the laughter continued.

Meanwhile, Naruto happily showed Fu around the village. They visited shop after shop until the Hokage stone faces eventually caught Fu's eye and she practically dragged Naruto to the top. At the top, she sat down on the fourth hokage's face with Naruto and looked out at the village below. "Back home, I liked to climb to the top of the largest tree next to our village and see how far I could look out." She said this to Naruto who nodded happily. Fu quickly grinned and shouted "race you down." And she sped off suddenly, leaving Naruto to eat her dust as he tried to run after her.

* * *

Five Years Later

Naruto put on his goggles and grinned to himself, he was ready for the world. "Alright Konoha, here I come!" He yelled and ran out of his flat apartment.

"Going somewhere?" Asked a voice, after Naruto had burst out of his home.

"Fu, I'm just going to visit the stone faces." Naruto said, which caused the mint haired girl to smile. "Not without me." She declared and handed him a bucket of white paint.

Daremo calmly rested on his back, at the side of the street, until he heard shouting. "No way" He said to himself. "Those ninjas can earn their keep and catch Naruto and Fu for a change." He then yawned and went back into a peaceful state of resting.

Naruto and Fu jumped from building to building in order to escape their pursuers and laughed at them, as the ninjas yelled out the usual declarations of "You won't get away with this." The two troublemakers jumped onto the ground and skidded to a halt when their teacher, a man called Iruka, appeared in front of them with a stern look. "Should be in class?" Fu asked, waiting for his response. Iruka nodded and dragged to the two of them, by the neck of their clothes, back to his class.

Standing in the before the doorway of their classroom, Naruto and Fu grinned at each other and bumped fists before entering. They made their way to the back of the classroom and sat down next to each other. A pink haired girl, called Sakura, turned around and started berating the two of them for not acting more like 'her' Sasuke. But Fu stuck out her tongue at Sakura and then paid attention to the teacher who openly declared that they would be sparring again today.

After school had ended, Naruto and Fu walked back to their apartments. "Hey, how come you can't beat that Sasuke?" Fu asked with a cheery smile. This question annoyed Naruto, but he couldn't get frustrated at Fu. So he just laughed and said "hey, you only beat him by punching him in the face quicker than he could grapple you." "Maybe so." Fu laughed. "But I broke his nose and still won the fight all the same. But he has something to be grateful for now."

"What's that?" Naruto asked. Fu started laughing again, but finally managed to say.

"Well now his nose is physically stuck up." Naruto and Fu had to stop walking due to laughing so much.


	7. Chapter 7 Finally Ninjas

Naruto A Stranger's Promise Chapter 7 Finally Ninjas

The cold wind came from the sea with a cruel and foreboding chill that struck the bones as if they were fragile glass. It wasn't a pleasant thing, guarding the boats, but some poor sod has to do it and it might as well be the poorest sod of them all. This 'poor sod' was in fact an old man by the name of Taru. But he never realized just how unlucky he was going to be on this night.

As Taru was making his hourly rounds, he came across a weird sight. Shadows seemed to be forming around each other until they finally took the form of a man. Then the shadows fled, but a man remained. "This dock is off limits!" The old guard almost commanded. But the shadowy figure grinned and his lips almost seemed to reach his ears. "I like my victims to know my name before they die. So here I am, Lok'tu, the man of shadows." After saying this, Lok'tu pointed his arm at Taru and the shadows seemed to jump on command. Racing towards Taru, but the old man wasn't helpless and he struck out with his arm, making a huge tidal wave launch itself at Lok'tu. But the water parted around him safely. Allowing the shadows to finally grab hold of their victim. Taru cried out, but Lok'tu had loomed out of a shadow, in front him, and grabbed Taru by the chin. "Now, I want you to tell me where our god ran off to." Lok'tu whispered this into Taru's ear with a deeper cruelty than the cold wind coming in from the sea. Taru struggled, but the shadows squeezed into his body like a vice, so he spat into Lok'tu's face. "That wasn't very nice. I was going to give you a few more seconds to look at the moon before I killed you. But now, ha, well how about you just experience the results of your defiance." Lok'tu said this like it was painful for him to hold back his rage. The shadows that had wrapped themselves around Taru now poured into his mouth, ears, nose and even his eyes. Preventing any screams from rising. But the pain of the shadows disintegrating Taru from the inside out, would have been unbearable. In the morning Taru was nothing but dusk and the ships that he was guarding had been utterly destroyed by an enraged Lok'tu.

* * *

Daremo woke up with a start, deadly premonitions were not in his nature. But he couldn't shake off a nasty feeling. He looked around the room that he was sleeping in and realized that it felt familiar. He had spent so long in his self-made house that it had started to feel like home. This made him think deeply on how much his life was changed by that night when the Kyubi attacked. In brutal honesty, the event hadn't even left him a scar; which was unfair for the people who had given their lives that night. But Daremo shook off such thoughts and rose from his bed and throw on his clothes. Somewhere in the last five years, Daremo had fashioned himself some light clothing with a heavy jacket on top, which was wrapped around in a brown clock during winter. Without warning, another dark thought entered Daremo's head. Today would be the day that Naruto and Fu became ninjas. Daremo wanted to go back to bed, knowing full well that the last five years had only strengthened Naruto's resolve to become Hokage, at least Fu was just happy to become a really good ninja. But she did have a habit of making Naruto's pranks grander than what he could pull off without her. However, today, she would stop doing that, as Daremo knew that being a ninja would keep her occupied. But Naruto becoming a ninja would only make him talk more, 'such is life' Daremo thought to himself and decided to go and find a bar to drink at.

Daremo left his house and was immediately greeted by Asuma Sarutobi. "I know that face." He said before adding. "But you can forget it, it's too early to drink." Daremo shrugged. "Can you blame me for wanting a drop?" Asuma lighted a cigarette. "Looking after Naruto and Fu for five years has been beyond anyone's expectations. Even if you did keep your distance every now and again. But they're still only kids, so you better not start to give up just yet." Daremo nodded at Asuma and decided to say "It's weird thinking that it's been five years already, normally I'm not surrounded by people. So five years has always felt the same to me, but this time... this time it felt like time acted differently." Asuma laughed.

"Hey, I don't care what you say. You're no older than I am and that means you're too young to start getting philosophical like my father." Daremo smiled and nodded again. "Alright, well you convinced me to wait for after the academy exams, so I'll kill some time and visit the fourth Hokage, see ya Asuma."

"Likewise." He said and they both parted ways.

* * *

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto yelled and seven clones appeared behind him. Hiruzen nodded his head with a worried expression. "Very well, you pass. But I do not approve of you using forbidden jutsu. Take your forehead protector and wear it proudly." Naruto jumped up and took the forehead protector from Hiruzen, then he wrapped it around his head. He grinned to himself for a moment, then bowed and joined Fu outside. Fu saw Naruto and congratulated him. "Hey it looks like your shadow clone jutsu paid off. That's great! Daremo made you work hard enough for it, so I would have had some words with him if it didn't turn out well." Fu said this and grinned and the two jinchuriki gave each other a high five before leaving the academy.

Daremo met them both outside and despite what he had said to Asuma earlier, he was generally pleased that Naruto and Fu had passed. "Hey kid, I see you managed to get through alright. Which means that Fu passed with ease." He said this and Naruto immediately gripped his fist. "Hey! Do you think that I'm a screw up or something!? And stop calling me kid already!" Naruto shouted this out angrily, but calmed down when Daremo patted him on the head. "Alright, let me see the protectors." Naruto and Fu smiled at each other and then showed off their protectors to Daremo. Naruto had it tied to his head like how he wore his old goggles and Fu decided to put it on her arm where it would be out of the way. "I think this calls for a celebration. Fu, since we normally go to Ichiraku, I think it'd be nice if you decided where we go to eat out for a change." Daremo directed this at Fu who started pondering on her options. Meanwhile, Naruto seemed to be having withdrawal symptoms. "Well, since we do normally eat ramen, why don't we try having dango for a change?" Fu asked. Daremo nodded

"Okay then, let's stuff our faces with Dango."

* * *

Inside the shop, Fu happily tamed her sweet tooth on anmitsu whilst Naruto slowly ate dango from a stick and Daremo just stuck to a tea. "This food is too sweet, I can't eat anymore." Naruto said this, looking defeated but jumped when he heard a voice behind him. "You better not let that Dango go to waste, kid." Naruto turned around to see the owner of the voice. A young woman in a trench coat with her hair tied up in a spiky bush looked down at Naruto with a rather fearsome grin. 'Scary' Daremo thought to himself and took another sip of his tea. "No, no. I'll start eating, I'll start eating!" Naruto's voice quivered as he said this and he quickly finished off his Dango before anybody had time to blink. "Good kid." The strange lady said and went to order her own Dango. "What was that all about?" Fu asked, Daremo shrugged at this and finished his coffee.

The next day, the two jinchuriki went to the academy to find out what teams they would be in. Eventually the teams were called out. Sakura, Sasuke and a Hyuga who had joined late in the year. Ino, Shikamaru and Choji had formed to follow their parent's footsteps and Hinata, Kiba and Shino were the last group to be called out. Naruto waited with Fu, but their names weren't called out. "Hey, Iruka sensei, how come our names weren't called out?" Naruto asked this rudely, but Iruka brushed it off. "You two already make up a team, now you're just waiting for your new sensei." Iruka left after saying this and Fu calmly went to the back of the room and waited, whilst Naruto paced. "Hey Naruto, I have an idea." Fu said. Naruto looked up and asked Fu what it was. After a brief explanation, Fu had help up a prank for their late team leader. Suddenly the door opened and a whiteboard cleaner fired off rapidly at the person coming through, but this person caught it and even managed to catch the falling bucket with her other hand. "Nice try. But your both a long way from getting the upper hand over me." Naruto recognized the voice and regretted his decision to join in on the prank. The trench coat wearing lady from the dango shop gave a vicious smile. Naruto froze, but calmed down when Fu appeared behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. "You're late sensei." She said with a grin. The woman laughed to herself, but Fu held her ground.

"Accurately observed, do you normally tell people the obvious?" Fu was unaffected by the trench coat lady's jab.

"Only if there's someone who doesn't seem to find it totally obvious, Sensei."

"Heh, I like you, my name's Anko and as you both have probably guessed by now. I am you're Sensei and you'll be going by the name of team twelve or team Anko. Now hurry up and follow me, I'm going to test if you have what it takes to be on my team." Anko left after saying this and Fu laughed at Naruto. "You're going to have to get used to this Anko if you want to become hokage. You know that." Naruto nodded at Fu and then slammed his fist into an open palm. "Alright, Come On!"


	8. Chapter 8 The truth about sacrifices

Naruto: A Stranger's Promise Chapter 8 The truth about sacrifices.

Anko stood in the middle of a crowded street with a smile on face. "This will be your training ground." She said, which made the other people around her nervously shuffle away. Naruto looked around and mumbled "huh?" Whereas Fu just stood and waited for Anko's first orders. Anko had decided that she'd waited long enough, so she continued. "You pass and become Genins if you can land a single punch."

"That's easy!" Naruto exclaimed, which made Anko chuckle slightly.

"You lose however, if I hit you or one of us hits a villagers." When Anko said this, anyone in earshot made a hasty escape and so only a few villagers, that were completely out of earshot, remained. "That's still easy!" Yelled Naruto, who was still living off of the motivation previously given to him by Fu, and he attacked Anko without hesitation. 'That fool needs to stop turning everything into an extreme!' Fu screamed inside her head, but joined in on the assault all the same. Naruto opened with a running hook shot, but Anko slid underneath and flipped over Fu; who had tried to deliver a low kick. Anko then cart wheeled out of the way when Fu tried to follow up with a spinning jump kick. Naruto joined back in and the fight, throwing a volley of punches. However, Anko easily dodged them all and tried to deliver a rapid strike with the tip of her hand. It connected, but Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Before Anko had time to think, having been thrown by Fu, another Naruto flew through the smoke at Anko. She jumped up high to dodge and landed on top of a building. Only to find another shadow clone waiting for her, but Anko easily snuffed out the clone's opportunity with a flick of her wrist. Then she back flipped into another street and Naruto and Fu followed.

* * *

Suddenly dropping in the middle of the street, the villagers that were unaware of the fight watched Anko curiously. They soon feared for their lives when Anko got out a dagger and slashed at the nearest one. But a yell from above made her stop, as a rain of Naruto's shadow clones fell upon Anko. Anko got out a second dagger and started to viciously slash at the diving Narutos.

Her daggers carved through the clones and smoke painted the area. "Secret: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique!" Fu yelled and fine powder loomed out of the smoked towards Anko. Anko acted quickly and bite into her thumb to allow her to summon a great snake that lifted her above the battlefield. Down below, villages stumbled around as they panicked in their blinded state. Naruto and Fu could not be seen anywhere. Then all of a sudden, Fu launched Naruto at Anko yet again and Anko just dropped from her snake in order to dodge. The snake disappeared in a massive cloud of smoke and Anko was hidden until she made her attack on Fu. Fu backed up, but accidently got too close to two cowering villagers. Anko smiled, seizing her chance, she made a roundhouse kick at one of the villagers. But the villager disappeared in a cloud of smoke and before Anko could react, the second villager grabbed hold of Anko's leg and then lashed out a kick at her stationary leg. Which caused to spin flick with her other leg as a knee jerk reaction, flicking the villager off of her. "I'll give you credit, I didn't expect either of you to try that." Anko said to the villager and in a puff of smoke, the villager was revealed to be the real Naruto. Fu jumped over to him and picked him up off the ground, whereupon he stood up and brushed himself off with a smile. "So did we win? Do we pass?" Naruto said, living in a buzzing high created by the battle. Anko nodded with a snake like grin. "Yep, you both pass!" Naruto and Fu turned to each other to celebrate, put Anko held her hand up to continue. "Don't forget that as members of team twelve, I am you leader and I'll be working you to the bone in order to make sure that neither of you slow me down." Fear gripped Naruto when Anko grinned, slightly showing one tooth. But Fu beamed back at her like she had done before. "If it's anything like how Daremo trained us, than it'll be a piece of cake." Anko's grin didn't fade from her lips.

"I'll have to ask this Daremo of yours to stop training you then. Because I wouldn't want either of you getting time to take a breather before or after my training sessions." Fu's smile faded at Anko's words. 'How much more hardship, than Daremo, can this one person deal to us.' Fu thought to herself. Anko, in the meantime, had turned her back and simply signalled for the two Genin ninjas to follow. Then the ninjas left silently without a word, behind them a group of villages gathered round to make complaints.

* * *

Anko landed on top of the Hokage residence. Naruto and Fu landed behind her. "I suppose you'll both want to know what that little test was about. Won't you?" Anko said, almost teasingly. Naruto nodded to himself before yelling, "of course! We already had a test, why did we have to do another?" Anko grinned and turned to face the Hokage Monument and looked directly at the fourth Hokage. "The fourth gave his life in order to protect this village and that's a sacrifice that should never be forgotten." Anko turned and faced the two genin and suddenly pulled a serious face before continuing. "The purpose of this test was not to see if you could hit me, or even to see if you could protect the villages. But it was in fact, to see if you were prepared to take a risk, if it meant protecting the villagers. Since, as ninjas, you serve the hokage, who serves the lord of the land of fire, who in turn serves the people of the fire nation. Which means that we serve our nation and it's people and must be ready to lay down our lives for those people, no matter how much we hate them." Anko said that last part with a smile. Naruto nodded furiously and Fu smiled before asking a question. "What if we had won, but didn't take that risk in order to achieve victory?"

Anko smiled, "there's no way you could have beaten me without taking a risk. That's what being a ninja is about sometimes. Taking risks." Fu nodded to herself and hung her head low in thought. Naruto looked at the stone face of the Fourth Hokage with his piercing blue eyes. 'Sacrifice, did you fight that fox monster, knowing that you'd have to lay down your life?' Naruto questioned this in his mind as he faced the Fourth Hokage, Anko smiled at the kid. It was a powerful sight for her. Watching the son respect his father's legacy, even if Naruto didn't know that the Fourth was his father, the bond was still there. In the end, the silence had to be broken though. "I want the pair of you up by five o'clock for training and if you're not ready by then." Anko threw a dagger between Naruto's feet after she said this and he jumped at the sudden attack. Fu remained silent, deciding not to get on her bad side. Like Naruto must have done, somehow. Anko then retreated in the village and left the two genin on their own. Naruto and Fu looked at each other and grinned. "See you tomorrow, Naruto." Fu began. Naruto threw a punch forward and yelled "Without a doubt, dattebayo!" Then the two ninjas ran along the villages rooftops on their way home.

* * *

Omake:

Naruto landed on his bed and fell asleep immediately. After darkness overtook him, he entered a dreamlike state.

Inside his dream, Naruto was standing in a dense forest. Which a multitude of plants and critters inside. Naruto explored the forest until he came across the strangest sight yet. Anko stood in the middle of a clearing with a large grin on her face. "Sensei?" Naruto managed to whisper despite the shock. Anko took her trench coat off of her shoulders and let it slip to the floor. Naruto froze at the sight of his teacher as she walked towards him; she then took of her mesh top and dropped that to the floor. Revealing her clean upper body and her ample breasts. Naruto tried to mouth something, but Anko just smiled sweetly and put her finger on his lips. Then she leaned down and bite into him slightly on the neck. It felt good at first, but then pain came rushing in and blood dripped from Naruto's neck. Naruto tried to push Anko away, but when he did so, her face was that of a snake and she devoured him whole.

Naruto awoke with a jump, he pushed himself up, covered in sweat. He shook nastily, trying to get the disgusting feel away from his skin. "What a weird dream." Naruto said to himself. "No wait, that wasn't a dream. I'm pretty sure it was all nightmare." Naruto lay back in bed for a while as he tried to gather some of his nerves before going back to sleep. Before darkness took over Naruto once more, Naruto said "I hope that's not a premonition for anything.


	9. Chapter 9 Return to the other continent

Naruto: A Stranger's Promise Chapter 9 Return to the other continent

The two genins looked up in surprise at Daremo, "wh-what did you say?" Naruto asked stunned for words. Daremo breathed in and tried again. "I'm going away for a while, it'll only be for a month or two. But for that whole time I'll be gone and you two will have to look after yourselves." Both Naruto and Fu couldn't believe what they were hearing. For five years this man looked after them, but now he just decides to up and leave. There was no proper response to this, so the two genins just stood silently. Daremo gave a soft smile. "Hey, I'll be back." He said. "But, I just have some stuff to do." Daremo gave a wave and left Naruto's apartment without another word. Naruto and Fu rushed after him, but he was gone. He had disappeared as quickly as he had come into their lives.

'I'm sorry you two' Daremo thought to himself. 'You're still just children and I shouldn't be leaving either of you yet. But I can't shake off this bad feeling I have and in five years time, who knows what has happened to my homeland.' With this last thought, Daremo stretched and pictured his legs strengthening as his body became light as the wind, then he focused his mind and began running; the leaves were ripped off of their branches, due to Daremo's speed.

* * *

Anko looked her two students up and down and grinned. "What's wrong? Are you two getting a premonition about my training already?" She asked this with her usual grin, but this grin faded as her students remained motionless; lost in thought. Anko breathed in a sigh as she thought about what to do, then an idea hit her, so she hit Naruto square on the jaw and he fell back on his bum. All life flooded back into him as he jumped up, completely livid, he yelled. "What the hell was that for?" Anko grinned, "you're a ninja now. So, if you don't keep your head on straight, someone will know it off." Naruto opened his mouth to argue, but saw the truth in her words and just nodded. Fu, who had been the onlooker to this short act of violence, was stiff as a board. Anko turned her back and looked over her shoulder to say. "Come on, we've got to get to our training ground and make the most of the time that we have." The two genin nodded to each other and hurried on after her.

Slamming her hand against a fence, Anko clutched the metal wire and with a grin she said. "This is training ground forty-four, also known as the forest of death and it will be where I train the pair of you to be people worthy of being called ninjas." Naruto folded his arms and huffed, acting with little interest. "Oh, you think that this isn't special?" Anko asked with curiosity. Naruto nodded and pointed straight into the dark, foreboding forest behind the fence. "Whatever is in there won't be anywhere nearly as bad as Daremo." Fu's eyes brightened after Naruto said this and quickly turned to him to say. "Oh, that's right. I remember when he made you climb up that waterfall in front of my village." The two genin turned back to Anko, but jumped when they saw her snakish grin on level with their own faces. "If that's the truth then I'll just have to make things a little more interesting, won't I?" She asked this and then vaulted onto the fence, which made a soft clinking sound as she stood on it lightly. "Alright you two, you'll be surviving in here until the end of the week and since you're so insistent on your guardian being worse than anything in this place, I'll just have to add a few surprise elements in order to keep the pair of you on your toes. Now get ready and move into the training ground, because it's going to be a long week for you two."

Naruto and Fu silently ran through the trees, Anko had given them one objective. Survive. Which was what they planned to do. They moved through the trees; since, on the ground, Naruto had walked straight into a tiger and had to beat it up in order to escape it's wrath. Fu had teased him about doing 'that' to Daremo once he came back, but had jumped onto a branch before he could reply. "Hey, tiger-bait!" She yelled without much concern for her surroundings. "We're going to be here until the end of the week, so let's try and find something to eat." Naruto nodded and shouted back "I'll startle it towards you and you kill it!"

Eventually they came across a boar, wandering in the forest. Naruto grinned and leapt behind with a large yell that sent the boar into a rage. It turned to charge Naruto down, revealing it's back to Fu. Fu prepared her kunai, but in an instant, the boar was ripped off of it's feet and wrenched straight into the air by a large snake. Chomping the squealing boar with a few bites, Anko's 'surprise element' turned to face Naruto with a glare.

* * *

Daremo stepped out onto a mass of land, after being at sea for a good few hours it was nice to stand on solid rock again. He turned to his boat, behind him, and by clenching his hand, the boat groaned and cracked until it completely fell to pieces. Ready to be broken down by the earth. Daremo turned back and looked out at the land before him, this part of it looked no different from when he had left; flat and rocky. Contempt with his survey, Daremo ran forward again, although this time at a slightly slower speed. However it wasn't long before he was attacked. The quiet land groaned and crumbled as the earth quaked and large rocks pushed upwards around Daremo, he back flipped out of the way. Narrowly avoiding being crushed and retreated further back when a large figure began ripping the upheaved rocks out of the ground, flinging them at Daremo.

When the dust settled, two figures walked out. The big man was eight foot two and full of muscle, completely hairless with a stone-like face. The second man was dressed so heavily in robes that it was impossible to tell of his physique, however he did have black scruffy hair. "I know it was him." The robed man said. "It's hard to mistake his chakra output." The large man stomped his left foot and spoke with a deep rumbling voice that made tiny pebbles tremble. "For someone who's apparently lived so long, you're a complete idiot for using your abilities and giving away your position like that. What if someone else had found you hiding a small boat instead of us?" Daremo shrugged and quietly said.

"I've been away for five years, a good warm-up will do me some good." The robed man bit his lip, but the big man smiled. "We haven't got much time, but a small exercise should be perfect to welcome you back." He then slammed his fist into the ground and the earth spiked up in a massive upheaval, straight towards Daremo. But Daremo blocked it with one hand, with his free hand he blasted a gust of wind towards the two men. The robed man jumped out of the way with surprising speed, but the big man just took the force straight on and ran towards Daremo. He too was surprisingly quick. Daremo gripped the upturned earth with both hands and his skin turned to rock. Then he blocked the big man's punch with one rock fist and the two men started to trade blows. As Daremo punched the large brute of a man, small bruises formed on his body. But as the large man's punches connected, only small chips of solidified rock fell off. Eventually the large man started to tire, but then the scenery changed. Daremo found himself within a large forest, a shadow loomed over him as a monstrous creature towered over the two men. The large man retracted, but Daremo cleared his mind and opened it to the chakra around him. Then he located the presence and darted towards it, with a hand stretched out. After feeling a sudden weight, he gripped until he heard a yelp and saw the forest fade away. The monster was nowhere to be seen also. "Okay, you win." The robed man said, with his throat being squeezed by Daremo's outstretched hand. "How did you know it was me?" He asked after Daremo had let go, the big man appeared behind them in order to hear the answer. "I felt a presence, it could have been Rael. But it also could have been you, Dartis. So I took a chance and it turned out for the best." The robed man pondered on this for a while before asking, "and if it had of been Rael instead of me?"

"Then I would have had to improvise." Daremo said and the large man, called Rael, laughed like thunder. "It's good to have you back my friend, come, we better get moving before someone undesirable actually does come along." Rael walked away into the rocky plains and the robed man, Dartis, followed behind. Daremo turned back to the sea, he thought about the two children that had been a part of his life for five years, then he followed after Rael and Dartis.

* * *

Fu exhaled a fine powder that blinded the giant snake. Then Naruto, along with his clones, grabbed the snake by it's tail and tied around a tree. The two breathed heavily as the snake snapped at them, but was powerless to do anything. Then another large snake slithered after them and the pair ran for their lives, soon after, the first snake then broke free of it's humiliating post and joined in on the chase.


	10. Chapter 10 The Four Nations

Naruto: A Stranger's Promise Chapter 10 The Four Nations

The barren wasteland stretched out further than sight could travel. Daremo walked silently with Rael and Dartis, leaving no footmarks in the scorched land. Eventually, something did appear on the horizon. It was a large city with wide open gates and a fortified stone wall that surrounded it. "Tell the council that he has come back and wishes to see them." Dartis said to a guard standing with four other men outside the gates.

The council room was gold in colour, with marble columns and large tapestries that draped down the overhanging walls. Before Daremo sat four councillors, high up on an impressive council meeting table.

* * *

"Kalron, I see you have returned." These words were spoken by an old woman with grey hair, but few wrinkles. "I'm sorry, but for over ten years now, I have gone by the name of Daremo. So please, if you will, call me Daremo." Daremo said this with a bow and then stood up straight again. A grey haired man, without any wrinkles at all, nodded his head. "Very well then, if you want to be called Daremo, we'll call you by this. But I assume this is only because you wish to return to the other continent?" He said this and coughed, presumably moving the conversation along, before speaking again. "What about your travels in this newly discovered land, did you find what you were looking for?" Daremo smiled at this. "Yes, yes I did. In fact I found demons." The council were shocked to the bone by Daremo's words. "You're telling me, that you spent fourteen years in this place and all you've found is more problems?" A large man stood up and said this, his left side was completely metallic, showing the tell-tale signs of a cyborg. "On the contrary, these demons might be just what we need. There are nine of them in total, and combined, they may have the power to guide us the golden garden." Daremo finished explaining and waited for the upcoming questions. "If this is true, why haven't you already united the power of these demons?" Asked the grey haired man. "This is because most of the demons are inside human bodies. Making so that, in order to extract the demons, we'd have to kill the hosts and I will not pave the way to the golden garden with blood." The large cybotic man grumbled at this, but saw no reason to question Daremo and instead growled out. "So, what have you been doing all these years?"

Four pairs of eyes stared down at Daremo from the council seats and waited for his swift answer. "The human host can still use the demon powers after learning to control these powers. However, a good third of the hosts were just children when I found them and even worse than this, most of the hosts are not likely to co-operate. As they are all separated by countries with bad blood. Added to this is the fact that the demons themselves, hate each other and will try to convince the hosts to fight each other." Daremo glanced up, but quickly continued before the inevitable shouting began. "But, I did spend the last fourteen years doing something useful. I took care of the host kids that I could find, until they were of an appropriate age and I put them in a position to be able to persuade the last host child to gather the adult hosts for when we need all nine demons together." When Daremo finished, a raven black haired man stood up quietly. Making his presence known for the first time during the meeting. "What is it Lok'tu?" The large councillor asked. The thin man with black hair smiled. "When I read in-between the lines, it sounds like you've been playing house all of this time." He grinned deviously, but the smile shrunk rapidly when Daremo appeared in front of him in an instant. "I didn't bring the four nations together, just so that you can sit around throwing accusations. Admittedly, I grew attached to the youngsters. But that's none of your business Lok'tu." Lok'tu regained his composure and put his hands behind his head. With a crack, Daremo was standing before the whole council again. "Council members, I have nothing more to say."

"Very well." The old woman said. "This meeting is adjourned until further notice. However we do want what's in the golden garden and if you want to restore your homeland, then you will also do what's required to get your hands on it." Daremo bowed and left. Meeting with Rael and Dartis outside.

* * *

"All of you should know of our biology by now. But let's do a quick recap so that we can do a quick evaluation of our last world war." A brown haired teacher stood at the front of a classroom, beginning her lecture. "As humans, our chakra organs do not produce any chakra, but instead, intake them or output them through our chakra receptors. Which are located all around our body. This allows us to either manipulate our own bodies or our surroundings at will as we are effectively extending a part of ourselves into the world around us. Now, that we know of, there are four different groups of ways that you can do this and these four disciples of chakra manipulation, created four different groups. The four groups were the psychics, the elementalists, the shape manipulators and the shadowed. Due to much arguing, these four groups split and formed four different nations of mentality, strength, life and darkness." The teacher smiled and said "I'll leave you to guess which nation belongs to which group of people." She then coughed and resumed her lecture. "However, the arguing was so great that wars began between these four nations. The very last war destroyed peaceful nation of unity. Which was composed of farmers and other people who did not want to engage in warfare. The land outside this city is the destroyed land that belonged to the nation of unity. So then, can anyone tell me what happened next?" The teacher asked this and smiled when a brown haired girl put up her hand and shouted out. "Kalron appeared!"

"Yes, very good Aleana. Kalron did appear and as the last of the people from the unity nation and he became the only man to master all four of the chakra disciples. After which, he challenged and defeated all of the nations leaders and generals in single combat. After their defeat, he united the four nations and asked for them to create capital in his old homeland. So that all of the nations were bound by the tragedy of the past." The teacher finished the lecture with a sigh and then looked up to smile at her class. "All right, class dismissed."

* * *

Aleana packed away her things and waited outside, soon a identically looking boy haired boy appeared and they ran home together. Arriving home, they entered and were greeted by their mother. But smiled with big eyes and grins when they saw Daremo. "Uncle Kalron!" They both shouted together and gave him a big hug.

"Well look at you two, little babies the last time I saw you and now you're both cheerful little kids." Daremo hug them as he said this and then parted from their hugs to speak to the woman sitting by the table. "You've done well to raise them both by yourself, sister." The two children went to stand by their mother, but their eyes didn't leave Daremo. "I said I would didn't I? Or my name isn't Olivia." The mother then laughed and said, "it's been hard though. But every hardship was worth it in the end." "I'm glad you pulled through. Now then, Aleana, Orion. I want to hear all about yourselves, however, I'm going to cook something for a change and give your mum a day off." Daremo said this and grinned with a light hearted chuckle.

Naruto threw himself into a snake and then yelled, "shadow clone jutsu!" Making dozens of clones appear inside the snakes throat, expanding it until the snake disappeared in a puff of smoke. Fu landed beside him and they both grabbed hold of their knees, almost collapsing with fatigue. Then Naruto stood up straight and yelled out. "Is that you've got sensei!? A few little forest pests and you're done for the day!?" This taunt received Anko's wrath as trees started to fall around Naruto and Fu, making it look like nature itself wanted to kill them both. They dodge out of the way and began running again to escape certain death.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hmm, Chapter ten is here already. This calls for a celebration! Left-Handed gloves, with cheese in them, for everyone! Thank you for reading this fanfic so far, I plan to continue until the world implodes or until somewhere after pain gets the living daylights beaten out of him.

Now a few of you have been asking me what relationships will be happening in this fanfic. So hey they are.

Naruto X Anko

Daremo/Kalron X Shizune

Fu X [Mostly undecided character, but the guy I have in my head right now shall be left as a surprise if I do end choosing him as Fu's partner (I have to keep some surprises for you guys, you know?)]

I shall also be doing some other relationships, but they're pretty minor and I don't think it will effect the fan fiction in any great shape or form.

So, once again, thank you for reading so far and I would be thrilled to know that you've all enjoyed the journey so far and want to continue it with me. (Don't make me say "Would you kindly.")


	11. Chapter 11 Guts and Mistakes

Naruto: A Stranger's Promise Chapter 11 Guts and Mistakes

Stopping by a stream, Naruto let off a small shuriken and it found it's target in the body of a small fish. "Alright!" Naruto yelled and Fu landed in front of him, her face scowling, in response to the sudden noise. "Be a little louder next time" Fu forced through her teeth. "Our crazy sensei hasn't managed to track us down and kill us yet." Naruto apologized and then went to get the fish, but it's body had already floated away downstream. Fu grimaced when she saw Naruto come back, looking soaked from the waist downwards. "We have a long way to go." Fu muttered to herself. Naruto crouched down and poked a rock, looking annoyed with himself, until an idea hit him and his face lit up like a candle. "I've got it, Fu-chan, we don't have to survive for a week. We just have to defeat Anko-sensei." Naruto practically beamed as he said this, but Fu just plummeted further into despair. "Does mean that, that rock you were poking told you all sorts of A-Rank Jutsu that can defeat sensei?" Fu asked this question sarcastically, expecting this to be enough to make Naruto realize just how much of a bad his idea was. But he wouldn't let up. "We don't need any high level jutsu, we can take her down just the way we are now. We've already been able to hit her once."

"But that was only once and she took that kick like a champ and swung you off like an annoying fly" Fu was getting interested now, it might be that Naruto really thought his bad idea was a good one. Or it might be that he had a good plan to follow this idea up with. "As ninjas, we only need to get one hit in. We just need to make that hit count." Naruto explained this, earning a well-deserved frown from Fu. But when he leaned in close and whispered his plan, her face started to beam as much as Naruto's. She clenched her fists and yelled "alright, we can do this!" Naruto jumped up into the air and yelled "you here me Anko-sensei? We're going to beat you, dattebayo!" Birds flew from their nests in a panic, making the trees shake. 'What do those idiots think they're doing?' Anko thought to herself as she watched them.

* * *

Anko leapt through the trees as she followed Naruto and Fu. 'I've been following them all of this time and they haven't even set up any traps. How do they expect to beat me? They haven't even changed directions, so they must know that I am following them by now. What on earth are they up to?' Anko pondered this until a she heard a clinking sound far below her. When she glanced she saw a shuriken stuck in the earth. Looking back up, she saw Naruto dropping all of his weapons; one by one as he took them out of his pouch. 'Are these idiots trying to taunt me now or something?' Anko followed a little more closely, it'd be impossible for each ninja not to be able to hear the other's footsteps by now. But Naruto and Fu still calmly jumped through the forest, even more so, they started to slow down a little. 'Are they giving up already? They can't be... I better move closer to make sure.' Anko frowned a little, thinking her game was over as she sped up in order to catch the two genin.

* * *

Naruto nodded to Fu and she turned around to face Anko and, with a grin, she yelled "Secret: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique!" Fu belched out fine powder towards Anko, blinding her as the powder blinded her. Anko stopped on a branch to let her eyes clear, but the branch exploded. Forcing Anko to retreat backwards, so that she could make sense of what was happening. But Naruto appeared behind Anko and jumped towards her with his fist targeted for her face. Anko pointed her arm at Naruto and snakes poured out of her sleeve at Naruto, tunnelling through him and grappling onto another branch. But Naruto instead dissipated into a puff of smoke. 'A clone? Since when did Naruto have time to make a clone?" Anko used her snakes to pull herself up onto the tree branch, but it exploded like the last one and Anko was falling to the floor. Two Naruto clones threw clones threw Fu towards Anko, but Anko fired snakes out of both of her sleeves and they coiled around two trees. She then leaned back and kicked outwards at Fu, landing a direct hit in her gut. But Fu turned into Naruto and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. The real Fu fell from above Anko and showered her in fine powder that blinded her, making Anko fall to the ground.

As she fell, Anko bite her hand and moved her hands in the formation of a summoning seal. But a dozen Naruto clones ran out from behind the trees and circled Anko, throwing daggers at her in all directions. Thus, Anko was forced to draw out her own two daggers in order to deflect the onslaught. When she hit the ground, she went for the nearest clone. But a large explosion distracted her, looking up she saw the trees around her rain down like nature's wrath. Anko gritted her teeth and ran from the falling debris, out of danger, Fu stood and mockingly grinned at Anko, who flashed a snake-like grin in return and charged of her. But within half a second, two of the splinters from above turned into shadow clones and fell on top of Anko; yelling out "this is the hit that counts!" Anko took out both clones in one spin kick. But when she landed on the ground, she backed up and felt a dagger press against her back. "Don't move." Fu said as gripped her dagger with deadly precision. Naruto leapt from up high and landed on the ground, then he took out his own dagger and held it against Anko's throat.

* * *

Anko stood still like a statue. The forest held it's breath. Then she spoke up, "how did you trick me?" Naruto grinned, but it was Fu who spoke first.

"It was Naruto's idea, harass you the same way you had been harassing us." After Fu had finished her little tidbit, Naruto spoke up and explained the details. "When we were running, I had been dropping weapons. Or that's what we wanted you to think, in reality I had only ever dropped the first weapon by itself. The rest were dropped off with clones. You see, I would take a weapon out of my pocket, summon a clone in front of me and then it would transform into a weapon and I would then drop the weapon I had taken out of my pocket. Allowing the clones to fall down in front of the falling weapons like a second shadow. As for the rest of the plan, the shurikens clones stayed hidden at ground level, the smoke bomb clones stayed hidden in the trees and the clones that had daggers with explosion talismans went on to plant more talismans on all of the trees. Before cancelling themselves out so that they wouldn't be caught fleeing." Naruto finished and Fu spoke up again.

"We used the same tactic that you had been using Anko-sensei. We taunted you into a mistake when Naruto dropped his weapons and we when we had both proceeded to slow down our running speed, then we constantly changed the environment and the state of play so that you wouldn't be able to have a single moment's thought." Fu finished speaking and the forest faded back into silence until Anko started to laugh with two daggers pressed against her. "That's a good plan. But the trouble with good plans is that only one mistake needs to be exploited to make it into a bad plan." Anko finished speaking and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto quickly tried to turn around but he was grabbed from behind and a dagger delicately cut into his face. Naruto yelped, but Anko held him tighter in response. Fu aimed a dagger at Anko's head, but Anko grabbed Naruto by the chin and stared Fu down into submission. She then licked the blood on Naruto's face and he screamed in disgust. Fu bit her lip and clenched her fists until they visibly shook. Anko smiled and whispered to Naruto. "You think you're the only person who can make shadow clones? It's true that you might be the only genin and there's no way that a chunin could use a shadow clone, or even some jonin, but I am a special-jonin. So something like the shadow clone technique comes in real handy, for the anbu it's even more useful. Don't go thinking that there's never going to be another person like you in the world." Anko let go of Naruto and then plainly said "the mistake that you both made, was to not have a back-up plan for when things went sour."

* * *

Dusk drew itself upon the world whilst Naruto and Fu sat at Ichiraku in silence, their bowls untouched. They had been sent out of the training ground due to the overall damage that had been caused, apparently the training ground was going to be used for some kind of event and it was Anko's responsibility to make sure that the forest and it's inhabitants didn't escape and unleash themselves upon a certain unexpecting town of ninjas. Fu rubbed her knuckes slowly in anticipation and after a moment's pause, she decided to break the silence. "This is no good, we can't let her get away with humiliating us. If that sensei likes blood so much, then we'll give her a mouthful of dirt!" Naruto looked at her with a puzzled face after Fu had exclaimed this.

"Mouthful... of dirt?" Naruto said this with complete confusion circling his mind and Fu blushed in embarrassment. 'Damn Anko, why did she have to lick him, now I feel really uncomfortable.' Fu sighed and tried to shrink into herself for the first time in years. 'A lick isn't exactly intimidating, it's just creepy. Tongues are pretty coarse and so it has to be uncomfortable and really weird, but it feels comforting when an animal licks you. No, no, no stupid! It doesn't matter how it felt, a weird person licked somebody else. It's nothing else but disgusting and completely wrong.' Fu plagued herself with these thoughts until the silence got to her again and she spoke up. "H-hey, Naruto?"

Naruto turned to look at Fu, visibly showing the smudged blood on Naruto's face. "Never mind" Fu whispered and she slammed her face down on the table. "I wonder, what Daremo's doing right now." Naruto said to himself. Fu straightened up and turned to face the setting sun, as she too wondered about her guardian's whereabouts.

* * *

Daremo touched the scorched earth with his fingertips and once again felt it, this land was dead. But if the people are alive, that means that the land can be restored. Daremo stood up and was joined by his nephew. "Uncle Kalron! Show me how you use chakra receptors!" Orion demanded this of Daremo, but was met with a questioning smile. "Why would you want to learn how manipulate chakra?" Orion thought for a moment until he came up with his answer.

"Because it would be cool! I want to be a hero just like you." Orion stood silently as he waited for Daremo's answer. But instead Daremo shook Orion's hair and said "chakra manipulation is a very powerful force and one that should be meet with an equally powerful responsibility." Orion pulled a face, but Daremo just laughed. "Hey now, you're my nephew. I wouldn't be surprised if you could one day master chakra on your own, just like me." Orion beamed brightly and ran off into a crowd. Daremo had a moment's rest before his niece, Aleana, came up from behind. "Uncle Kalron, Uncle Kalron, there's a man with all different kinds of rooks! Please take me to see him!" Daremo sighed and then gave a happy smile. "Alright Aleana, up you go." Daremo picked up Aleana and put her on his back. Being with his family again was simply bliss, but he had another family on the other continent and they would need his guidance soon. But right now, his blood family needed him more. So he carried Aleana, on his back, as he walked further into the city marketplace.


	12. Chapter 12 Welcome Back

Naruto: A Stranger's Promise Chapter 12 Welcome Back

Author's Note: Ahh, finally. A chapter that catches up with the actual show. So, this chapter is a little bit slow due to the fact that I needed to reconnect the storyline with the storyline that will start the Chunin exams. So apologies if this chapter is a little dull compared to last week's chapter.

:End of Author's Note

* * *

"So, what do you plan to do?" Olivia asked Daremo as he sat in the chair opposite to her. "I have no choice, I must leave." Daremo answered her. "The sooner the better." Night had fallen and so Aleana and Orion were asleep, the sound of silence had swept the streets and it seemed like Olivia and Daremo were the only people talking in the entire continent. "But you just got back a couple of weeks ago, the children have only had myself and each other all these years. Do you really want to leave them?"

Daremo answered Olivia immediately. "Of course I don't want to. But I have to."

"Why? You don't have to go halfway across the world, there are other ways. I'd say that you don't even have to restore the land. People are living fine without every blade of grass being the way they used to be." Olivia desperately didn't want Daremo to leave, but she was fighting a losing battle. "Maybe they are, for now, but it won't be long until people start fighting again and then this land truly will become a graveyard. I need to make sure that the four lands never fight and hurt the people of the fifth land ever again. Aleana and Orion are the last of our people, they need to future to grasp and they can't grasp that future if they're constantly in danger of the land of darkness using the land of unity as a battleground to fight the land of life or if the land of strength decides to fight the land of mentality. If I could protect the children forever, then I would. But they need a peaceful land to stand on, because neither of us will be here forever and one day, they'll have their own children to look after. With the prosperity of this land, we could finally bring peace to the continent." Daremo finished and stood up, then Olivia stood up and they hugged each other. "Goodbye, my little sister." Daremo said softly.

"Stay safe Kalron and don't you dare get hurt so far away from home." Olivia was the first to break away. She went and stood by the door of the children's bedroom, her bedroom adjacent to theirs. The house was small and it wasn't for the quality of wood and building expertise, it would be a shack. But as it was, it was a comfortable home. Perfect for a quiet family. "I'll let Dartis and Rael know that they've been reassigned to look after you whilst I'm gone. Stay safe Olivia and keep a safe distance from the council, above all else, your secret identity is what keeps you and the children from their grasp." Daremo then left, shutting the door behind him.

* * *

Standing at the foot of the beach, Daremo, Rael and Dartis stared out across the ocean. "I'm sorry that I've had to bother you two again. But it seems like the man who leant me his boat to cross the ocean last time has moved on."

"Don't mention it." Rael told Daremo, holding a small rowing boat underneath his arm with ease. "It was brief, but you were only here for a quick check-up and report anyway." Dartis said, looking a bit weary. Daremo nodded and Rael set the boat down on the ground. The former then gave a wave to his two companions and got inside. Then Daremo used his chakra to manipulate the sand into a small slope that pushed him off into the sea. A few seconds later, the water churned and Daremo's boat shot off like a jet.

* * *

Naruto's muscles had finally stopped aching and it looked like Anko's training was finally becoming less difficult, no doubt the same could be said of Fu. But Fu wasn't always around after training and it had been a while since Naruto had talked to her. Naruto assumed that she was missing Daremo, since she had come from a different country, Daremo was the only adult she fully trusted. Naruto always had Iruka to talk to about his problems, but Fu had only ever had Daremo to look to for advice. Naruto let out a sigh as he leant back on the stone bench he was sitting on. Naruto wanted to help her, but he didn't have a clue what was bothering her and wasn't even sure if he could help her. Suddenly, a light bulb clicked inside of Naruto. If he didn't know what Fu's problem was, he should just go and ask her. After that, the rather slow and somewhat dim-witted Naruto left to find Fu. Only to be crushed to the ground with a yelp by a small weight hitting his back. "Naruto!" Fu shouted on top of him. Naruto stood up, Fu grabbing hold of his shoulders so that she wouldn't fall off, then he asked. "What? Did you try and prank Anko or the Hokage or something?" Fu jumped off of Naruto's back and darted out in front of him. "No! No! It's not that! Daremo's back." Fu shouted this at Naruto, who kept quiet until realisation dawned on his face. "Alright!" He shouted. "Let's go and get him! Dattlebayo!" Naruto pulled a grin and they both started to run towards the village gate.

* * *

"Your two genin have caused me a bit of trouble." Anko declared into Daremo's face, who, rather tired and hungry, just pointed at himself. "My two?" He asked.

"Yeah your two. They knocked down a lot of trees in one of the training grounds and now I've had to repair the damage as well as teach them." Daremo wasn't really sure of what Anko expected him to do about this. He wasn't even sure as to why the training ground was so important, before he left it seemed like there were to many of them. In fact, there were probably to many trees to begin with. "Did they learn anything?" Daremo asked. Anko grinned in pride as she answered his question.

"I made the little genin physically stronger. As well as getting their chakra control to a point where they can both walk up trees." Again with the trees, Daremo thought to himself. "Hey! Daremo!" Someone shouted all of a sudden and Daremo looked around to spot Naruto and Fu running towards him. At this point, Anko tried to sneak off; but Daremo was quicker and held her in place by her trench coat collar. She turned round and fixed him a threatening stare, but Daremo pretended not to notice as the two genin caught up to him.

* * *

"Eh? Why are we eating here?" Naruto stood in the middle of the road and stared wide eyed at the dumpling store. "I thought it would make a nice change." Daremo said. 'And on top of that, Anko would probably try to sneak off if I brought her to a ramen store.' Daremo thought to himself as he watched Anko already making her way inside with a large grin. Fu was also quick to enter, but she had to come back to drag Naruto inside.

"Hey, Daremo, where were you all this time?" She asked Daremo after sitting down with Naruto. "I was actually in my home country." Daremo replied, whilst Anko started wolfing down dango next to him. "Home country? Which land is it?" Naruto asked these questions with a child-like curiosity. "It's in a far away land across an entire ocean. Most of my time away was spent simply in travelling." As soon as Daremo answered, Fu's eyes lit up. "What kind of a place is it? Do they have ninjas there? Or are they all civilians like you? What-" Daremo put a hand up to interrupt Fu before answering. "If you really want to know, I'll have to show you both what kind of a place I was born and grew up in." 'Although, that will be years away yet.' Daremo thought. "In any case, it's good that you're back. These two will no doubt want you to watch them in the chunin exams." Anko suddenly spoke up from behind Daremo and what she said puzzled him greatly. Looking at Fu and Naruto's faces of shocked awe, Anko had apparently said something of great importance. "So, that's why we haven't taken any mission?" Fu asked, her eyes ablaze.

"That's right. This whole time you've been preparing for a chance to become the next level of ninja." Anko had answered in an instant and the two ninjas jumped for joy in response. "Alright! It's time to show that I'll be the one to become the next hokage!" Naruto shouted. Daremo sighed, 'he's still going on about that. Well it's something to shoot for, but honestly, that boy's set for bigger.' Fu quieted down as she realized something. "Hey Daremo, before you check in with the hokage, do you mind if I show you something I've been practicing." Naruto was a little surprised by this, he had known that she had spent time alone. But wasn't aware of the fact that she had been practicing the whole time. Daremo nodded. "Sure, Anko are you coming? She's your student." Anko nodded in mid bite and then ordered another dango with hand signals.

Fu breathed out a mass of fine powder that covered the smaller training ground (decorated with three wooden posts). "I produce a lot more powder than the last time you saw me use this jutsu." She said with a grin. Anko looked at Daremo and he nodded in response, notifying that he had noticed it to. After a few seconds pause, Daremo stepped into the field of powder. "Hey, wait, what are you doing?" Fu asked. She stiffened, expecting him to be blinded, but he just stood there silently. The powder was making his eyes irritated and visually haze, but they didn't have the same blinding potency that they did before. Clearly, Fu had learnt how to manipulate her chakra to produce more, but didn't have the control to keep the same chakra potency in the volume of powder. "The powder isn't as potent as it was before." Daremo said without moving and Fu jumped a little, showing a little dismay on her face. "But you just need to practice chakra control and manipulation, that's all. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you envelope a whole town in powder in a few years time." Fu perked up a little, feeling a little better that she hadn't completely failed. But she jumped again when Naruto sneezed next to her. "Can we go now?" He asked in a nasal voice. "My nose is getting itchy."


End file.
